5 Link Building Mistakes That Kill Your Rankings

Link building has been and continues to be at the center of a ton of confusing SEO strategies. ‍‍After auditing hundreds of sites, here’s a handful of mistakes I see killing rankings over and over again.

Mistake 1: Prioritizing Quantity Over Relevance

While a dozen links from relevant industry publications might sound nice, they won’t compare to a single backlink from a relevant, authoritative website. These days, Google’s algorithm has gotten remarkably good at understanding the relationship between sites and topical relevance.

If you’re a SaaS company, and you have a bunch of backlinks from a variety of recipe blogs and pet care sites, it means that you’re trying to manipulate Google’s backlink algorithm.

Instead, just focus on sites where your target audience actually spends time.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Anchor Text Distribution

Here’s what a healthy anchor text profile typically looks like: - 30-40% branded anchors (your company name) - 20-30% naked URLs - 20-30% generic anchors (click here, this article, etc.) - 10-20% partial match keywords - Less than 5% exact match keywords

If your profile looks nothing like this, you have a problem.

Mistake 3: Building Links to the Wrong Pages

Many sites build links only to their homepage or money pages. But that leaves the rest of the site as orphans and unable to rank.

Instead, the best approach is to build links to your best informational content and then use internal linking to spread that authority. This looks natural to Google and builds up the overall authority of your domain.

Mistake 4: Neglecting Link Velocity

Links need to build up gradually over time. For example, 500 backlinks going up in one month, then no backlinks for the next six months can look spammy.

When it comes to sustainable link building, you want to focus on getting consistent links over time. So, it’s better to build a few quality links each week than to do an all-out campaign once a year. Google also looks at velocity patterns in link building. So, if you see unnatural spikes in links, it will likely trigger a review of your site.

Mistake 5: Not Monitoring Your Backlink Profile

Links can also become toxic over time. Sites that were once seemingly legitimate websites can become link farms. Competitors can spew negative SEO campaigns at your site. If you don’t regularly check your backlinks, it’ll be a while before you notice any problems – not until rankings tank.

Set up monthly audits of your backlinks to ensure they’re all high-value. Use Google Search Console or a third-party tool to monitor any new links to your site. Be quick to disavow the ones that come off as spammy before they hurt your site.

The Path Forward

Link building isn’t dead just yet – but the link building tactics that were effective five years ago will hurt you today. Instead, focus on earning links with valuable content and through outreach and outreach strategies. The days of trying to game the system are over.

FAQ

What’s Fleshprinting?

Fleshprinting is the practice of adding markers to an AI-assisted content that would be generally considered highly human – such as specific screenshots, real dates, outcomes, tools, and personal failures. Taking the act of soulcrafting a step further, these “fleshprints” are seen as proof that the author of this content has actually been there – something that can both pique the attention of search algorithms scanning for evidence of E-E-A-T or readers.